Nowness

A young astrophysicist in a war-torn country watches the stars and black holes, holding a dialogue with her unborn daughter about the nature of light and darkness.

What does it mean to be goth—to be an outsider, to live both on the margins and in the midst of society? Filmmakers Jordan Hemingway and Alban Adam prize open the coffin on a world of darkness and light, exploring its multiplicities and intersections with subcultures and the ever-present experience of queerness.

A frazzled adulteress played by Parisian beauty Zoë Le Ber wakes up in the familiar surroundings of Bar Chateau Marmont, only to find herself trapped in a prank at the hands of her restaurant-owner lover, Fred.

Two Asian-American teenagers meet in the bathroom of a Chinese restaurant while having dinner with their families.

Sohaila, Zahra and Zeinab train every day. Their dream is to become professional fighters and to show the world that all people are equal. Director Lukas Tielke and his team spent a week in Malakasa refugee camp, outside Athens, getting to know these inspirational young Afghan women.

There are houses, and then there’s Ricardo Bofill’s house: a brutalist former cement factory of epic proportions on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. A grandiose monument to industrial architecture in the Catalonian town of Sant Just Desvern, La Fabrica is a poetic and personal space that redefines the notion of the conventional home. “Nowadays we want everyone who comes through our door to feel comfortable, but that's not Bofill’s idea here,” says filmmaker Albert Moya, who directed latest installment of In Residence. “It goes much further, you connect with the space in a more spiritual way.” Rising above lush gardens that mask the grounds’ unglamorous roots, the eight remaining silos that once hosted an endless stream of workmen and heavy machinery now house both Bofill’s private life, and his award-winning architecture and urban design practice.

Marking the 30th anniversary of Derek Jarman's passing, close friend and collaborator Tilda Swinton leads a poetic tribute to the late artist and filmmaker with a slow, meditative journey into Jarman’s poem "Chroma" during a visit to Beijing.

At the edge of Shirahama, a coastal tourist town in Japan, an ageing scientist works to unlock the biological secret of immortality held in the life cycle of a tiny jellyfish. At a temple in Kyoto, a Zen priest contemplates the metaphysical immortality held within a single breath. Some years ago, filmmaker Spencer Macdonald read an article in The New York Times titled "Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?" by Nathaniel Rich. Comprehensive and insightful, the article is compelling not least for its potential to deliver a revelation that defies one of life’s most fundamental truths; that we all live then die. It also shines a light on the arrogance of the anthropocene, the evolving landscape of Shirahama, and a detailed insight into the life and work of the charming and fervently curious Dr. Shin Kubota, a warm and eccentric scientist determined to harness the biological secrets of a jellyfish for humanity.

In this film, Pastor George of First African Baptist Church lends us his wisdom and experience of leading a congregation through the most turbulent year in living history. “I admired everything about that man, from his shoes to how he kissed my grandmother's hand,” says Lucas. “When Covid first hit, the cloud of isolation, ironically, drove me to reconnect with a place where Black folks have always found solace and care; our churches.”

“Sex work. The phrase evokes so much emotion, yet we understand it so poorly,” rising director Yago Hunt-Laudi wrote on an Instagram post celebrating the premiere of his new film, The Chrysalis. In this documentary profile, he paints an intimate portrait of stripper Haley Rolland, a young woman from Missouri who speaks about taking control of her body and the difficulties she encountered during the pandemic.

In the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into males and females. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” - men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.

Arab-American filmmaker Yumna Al-Arashi embraces the rhythmic rituals that have run alongside Islamic tradition throughout the centuries in this surreal and poetic short film. Piecing together old and new, Al-Rashi's dream-like imagery breathes fresh air to a subject hardly seen in positive light.

In the first of a new series of Define Beauty, Berlin-based directer Matt Lambert—known for his often-NSFW work exploring sex and intimacy—gets under the skin of our infatuation with sweat. Read more on NOWNESS

Le Labo Fragrances takes us on an intimate journey to the Australian bush to visit the source of its soulful Sandalwood scents in Western Australia, a region renowned for its rugged landscapes, tidal flats and staggering coastlines. The Language of the Trees started life as an elevated documentary on the rhythm and processes of a sustainable sandalwood plantation in Australia, where one can find the source of the sandalwood oil that creates the heady fragrance combinations in Le Labo’s iconic collection of 18 eau de parfums.

Two young people discover each other as they explore a labyrinthine derelict Glasgow swimming pool. A high-energy contemporary dance piece shot in the emptied Govanhill Baths in Glasgow.

Emerging filmmaker Jade Ang Jackman shares a fierce new film about Olympian fencer Ysaora Thibus and her journey to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The Countdown consists of archive footage of Thibus in training, a stylized sequence that isolates the fencing lunge, and a self-shot video diary that gives viewers an insight into the athlete’s tireless training practice and what it takes to compete at an elite level.

Two girls find themselves locked in an Oslo public swimming hall and bond over school gossip, boys and dancing to the psychedelic sounds of Lindstrøm.

“When you go to dig your fields or make a pot from clay, you are disturbing the balance of things. When you walk, you are moving the air, breathing it in and out. Therefore you must make payments.” —The Arhuacos The Arhuaco are the indigenous people of Colombia who have resided in the secluded mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta since the arrival of Spanish colonialists, the high plateaus proved to be a place of escape over the centuries. Deeply spiritual, the Arhuaco believe that the Sierra Nevada is the heart of the world; and if the heart is sick, the whole body will eventually die.

Artist and filmmaker Quentin Jones joins forces with Miley Cyrus in a kinky collaboration, stripping away the pop phenomenon's cartoonish persona in "Miley Cyrus: Tongue Tied".